A Reflection on Leadership

One of our signature events at Somerset is the Investiture of Student Leaders and the Commissioning of the Senior Class. On Thursday this week, the Class of 2026, 45 who began their journey as the foundation Pre-Prep cohort in 2013, who were then joined by 9 new Prep friends in 2014, will formally begin their final year of school along with another 95 friends who joined along the way. A tradition treasured by our community, is our Prep friends, the Class of 2038, will present Senior badges to each member of the Senior Class.

For so many of our students who spend up to 14 years at Somerset, it is safe to say that they ‘know’
many people; their peers, their teachers and the staff who are committed to their success.

What does it actually mean to know someone? We can know about them, we can know of them, but do we know
them? Knowing someone has 4 key elements:

1. Display of loyalty: Being truthful about reality, being open and being able to speak with honesty. Leading with service, not with power. Sacrifice, and putting yourself last shows your loyalty to them.
   
2. Optimism and opportunity: Leaders and their communities should mutually protect one another. Being positive not just for yourself, but for each other. Good leaders don’t see people as they are but see them as they could be. In doing this, you do more than exercise your own opportunities for your own power and own authority. Instead, you allow others to fulfil their dreams and realise their talents.
   
3. Vision is more than a goal about where you are going to ‘get’ to in life or what the community will ‘get’ in terms of buildings or reputation. That’s ambition, not vision. Vision is where we see what we want to be as people. That vision at Somerset, is to be people of character and conscience, decency and inclusion. It’s about a place at the table for everyone, where no one feeds from the crumbs of our success. That, at Somerset is our strength. We aren’t all the same, but we are all one.
   
4. Empathy: Is essential in leadership. Leadership is being able to practice empathy together as a community, rather than being consumed by ego and prestige. What’s so important is staying real, staying grounded. Having a sense of empathy means having a sense of compassion and understanding. Without that, leaders don’t see everything. As Jesus was walking to Calvary he fell – and was helped up. He was not perfect. Leadership isn’t about being perfect because the reality is, no one can be.
   
   Loyalty, optimism, vision and empathy. They are the ingredients of what it means to know someone. To know them is to love them.
   
   That’s not an unusual theme. It’s a theme deeply embedded in the Bible and also song. In 1961, The Teddy Bears had a hit, “to know you is to love you”. They weren’t the only band, The Beatles, also sang that same song.
   
   Why is it so important to love someone and why is it important for a community to love its leaders? The Bible says there are 3 important drivers in life – faith, hope and love. Central to both faith and hope is love. Why? Because without it, you can’t have faith and without the love of someone you can’t have hope. It is hope that creates a sense of belonging and belonging means that someone loves and cares for you. This love ultimately means that someone will protect you and with that, comes empowerment. With empowerment comes hope.
   
   We wish faith, hope and love to our Junior and Senior School Leadership Teams and The Class of 2026 and hope our leaders feel empowered to help evolve what it truly means to be a Somerset student – a person of Character and Conscience.